Roof-to-sidewall connection for vehicles



May 5, 1964 w. s. EGGERT, JR

ROO-TG-SIDEWALL CONNECTION FOR VEHICLES Filed Feb. 23, 1962 PI CI 3 36 ffl-'M INVENTOR. l Walter SEqgerlclr BY ATTORNEY United States Patent O "ice 3,131,649 ROF-T-SDEWALL CUNNECTN FOR WEHECLES Walter S. Eggert, fir., Philadelphia, Pa., assigner to The Budd Company, Philadeiphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Feb. 23, 1962, Ser. No. 175,116 4 Claims. (Cl. 10S-491) This invention relates to roof-to-sidewall connections for vehicles and more particularly to new and improved flexible joint railway vehicle structures.

Railway cars were at one time made of wood, reinforced with steel plates, bolted or riveted together. Wooden cars were replaced with cars made of steel plates bolted and/or riveted together. Modern railway cars are made by welding steel shapes together to form all-welded, all steel railway cars. Such railway cars were structurally designed and assembled to form a rigid box.

Recent developments in railway cars have shown that rigid box structures are subject to stress concentrations at the points or joints of intersection of the rigid frame panels, for example, the roof and sidewall panels. Elimination of the rigid intersection between these panels by provision of a dexible intersection structure improves the load carrying characteristics of the structure and prevents fatigue failures at points of stress concentration in all steel cars.

Heretofore the flexible intersection joints between intersecting panels were restricted to flexible plates which were load carrying members. In all-welded, all-steel rail- Way cars flexible plates are acceptable, but flexible plates preclude the assembly and disassembly of car panels once they are welded in place. The flexible plate intersection joint has proven the desirability of further improvements in exible joints.

Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a new and improved friction connection between the sidewall and roof of a vehicle which will provide a flexing movement and avoid the heavy stress concentration typical of rigid joint structures.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide friction coupling means for joining two all-welded steel panels of a railway car.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a flexible joint construction between the sidewall and roof which uniformly transmits and distributes loads imposed on one panel into the adjacent intersecting panel by friction coupling.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a sidewall-to-roof connection which is selfnaligning and interlitting.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved joint employing a new and improved friction fastening means between the sidewall and roof panels which readily facilitates assembly.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved joint between sidewall and roof which permits modification of existing rigid joint vehicle structures to provide a new and improved flexible joint structure.

Other features and objects of novelty will be apparent from the following description of an exemplary embodiment, reference being made to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a rail car body assembled from side, roof and floor panels;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional elevation taken at the intersection of the roof panel and side panel of the car body of FIG. l showing the friction coupled flexible joint connection of the present invention;

ylii@ Patented May 5 1964 FIG. 3 is a plan view of the cupped spring washer shown in elevation in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a section taken through the spring Washer of FIG. 3 showing the washer in its normal unloaded state.

Referring now to FIG. l illustrating a typical railway car having a roof panel Ill and a side panel 12 which are joined together at the top of the side panel and the edge of the roof panel to form a flexible connection. Roof panel 10 comprises a plurality of carlines 14 extending transverse the railway car and covered over by corrugations 16 welded thereto. The carlines 14 are formed structural shapes or formed plates having flat web areas at the top and bottom for supporting the corrugations and rigidifying the panel. A Z-section roof rail 18 is welded to the carlines 14 at the obtuse angle leg of the Zsection. The center web of the roof rail 18 extends parallel to the end of carlines 14 and terminates in a downturn acute angle leg. An angle shape top beam 20 is welded to the top of the carlines 14 and the corrugations 16 as shown. The downward extending leg of the top beam 2@ is welded to the downward extending acute angle leg of the roof rail 18 and terminates in an upturned J-section 22 which forms a rigidifying beam member and a rain gutter for the railway car. In order to provide a clear understanding of the roof panel subassembly lil a phantom view of the roof panel is shown above and removed from the flexible joint connection in FIG. 2.

Side panel 12 comprises a plurality of side posts 24 covered on the outside by corrugations 26 welded thereto. A channel shaped top rail 28 is attached to the top of the side posts by Welds as shown. In the preferred embodiment shown, top rail 28 forms an acute angle at its uppermost point between its outside leg and its central web members and the central web member is formed to be parallel to the top of the side posts. It will be understood that the rail and beam members 1S, 20 and 28 may be formed of heavy plate steel by roller forming and are installed as throughrunning members along the panel edges of the railway car.

During the assembly of the railway car, roof panel lil and side panel 12 are fabricated as separate components. After the side panel 12 is erected the roof panel 10 is lowered onto the throughrunning top rail member 28. The acute angle formed in the roof rail 18 acts as a socket or positioning means to position the roof panel into an exact predetermined location on the acute angle formed by the top rail 28. This method of assembly completely eliminates the need for jigs and positioning equipment when assembling the two panels. In the preferred embodiment shown a soft pliable non-hardening mastic is applied to the apex and acute angle downward leg of the top rail 28 to provide a weathertight seal between the mating downturned legs of the rails 18 and 28.

Roof panel 10 and side panel 12 are self-locking and positioning due to the shape of the overlapping and interconnecting joint. If no fastener means is provided between the web member of rails 18 and 28 there would be a tendency for the roof panel to shift its bearing load to one side or the other of the web member of top rail 18 when the joint is placed under stress tending to change the angle of intersection between the panels. In order to provide a joint which is flexible and still provide an area of contact between the web members 18 and 28 spring loaded fastening means Sil are provided between the web members of the rails 18 and 28. In order to facilitate ease of assembly the web members of the rails 1S and 28 are prepunched to provide an oversized aperture for the fastening means 30. Fastening means 3) preferably comprises a shear bolt 32, a locknut or amines 3 elastic stop nut 34 and one or more spring loading washers 36 which will be described hereinafter.

Webs of rails 1S and 2S are provided with oversized apertures for the bolt 32, thus no bearing load is transmitted between the center web members through the bolt. This is a unique departure from rigid all-welded structures and exible all-welded structures. The clearance provided by the oversized aperture eliminates longitudinal shear stresses at the connector means and permits easy assembly.

Bolts and rivets of the early railway cars where reamed fit and hot iit bearing loaded shear pins.

When a load is applied to the panels and 12 which tends to increase the included angle of intersection of these panels, the fastening means 30 maintain the mating portion of the web members of rails 18 and 28 which are to the left of the shear bolt 32 in mating Contact and at the same time permit the mating portion of the web members of the rails 1S and 28 to the right of the shear bolt 32 to open slightly and iex, thus avoiding stress concentrations in the interconnecting joint between panels. When a load is applied to the panels 10 and i2 tending to decrease the included angle between intersecting panels the exact converse is true; the mating portion of the web members of rails 1S and 28 to the left of the shear bolt 32 tend to open and the portion to the right remains in mating contact providing area contact between panels 10 and 12. It can be seen that the web members of rails 18 and 28 are loaded similar to restrained end beams with the point of restraint at one side or the other of the shear bolt 32. It is apparent that moment forces at the panel joints are greatly reduced.

Not only does the spring action of the washer spread the bending moment imposed at the bolt 32, but the fastening means 3i? are spaced between side posts 24 and carlines i4 so that the webs and legs of the rails act as torsion bars between adjacent side posts and carlines. This is accomplished by spacing the bolts away from the intersection of side posts and carlines.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the spring loading washer 36 which is formed by providing a dat blank of metal slightly larger than the outer permieter of the shaped washer shown. The blank is pressed between mating dies to provide a cupped and raised spring Washer as shown in FIG. 4. The cupped spring loading washer 36 is heat treated after the die forming operation to provide its spring characteristics and since the mating die forming operation causes a ow of the metal between the dies there is little or no distortion of the flat working surface 38 which extends around the perimeter of the washer.

Roof rail 1S and top rail 23, as explained before, are connected to their respective roof and side panels and then assembled as a friction connecting joint. It has been found desirable to form the center web members of the rails so that they mate one with another at an angle approximately bisecing the angle of intersection of the two panels, thus providing maximum access to the bolt aperture as well as an interfitted locking joint.

Cupped spring loaded washers 36 are preferably designed to provide a fixed load when compressed flush, thus providing a means for pre-setting xed tension in the bolts. The washer serves two important functions: it transfers the fastening load of the nut and bolt to the outer perimeter of the washer providing a friction connection between webs and further provides a spring yielding joint connection which eliminates fatigue failures. Deflection of panels in rail cars is very small but if rigid joints are provided this small amount is sufiicient to cause stress concentrations and eventual fatigue failures.

The rail car joint shown offers a cheap reliable ilexible joint which permits complete rail cars to be made as panels, shipped in panel form to distant points and assembled without any requirement for factory jigs and expensive equipment. Not only does this reduce the cost of manufacture, but ryreatly reduces shipping cost. Also existing rigid joint structures may be disassembled and provided with new rails and readily reassambled with the improved flexible joint structure.

It is seen that the invention provides a very dependable and durable connection which is easy to assemble. That the nesting action of the interconnecting joint of the panels does not attempt to cut through or shear the bolt 32 while providing a novel and improved flexure connection between railway car panels which continues to remain friction-tight even though wear may occur. The novel friction-coupled flexible joint permits the employment of materials which are incompatible for welding. While one embodiment of the invention has been described for the purposes of illustration it it to be understood that there may be various embodiments and modiications within the scope of the invention such as minor modifications of the elements of the fastening means to achieve the novel iiexure joint.

What is claimed is:

1l. A iexible roof-to-sidewall connection for a railway vehicle having a vertical sidewall panel and a sloped roof panel intersecting at an obtuse angle comprising, a vertical sidewall panel `having a plurality of vertical sidewall posts, a throughrunning channel shaped cap connecting said plurality `of sidewall posts and providing a center web member of said cap which substantially bisects the angle of intersection between said roof panel and said sidewall panel, a sloped roof having a plurality of supporting carlines, a throngluunning Z-section connecting said carlines and providing a center web member of said Z-section which substantially bisects the angle of intersection between said roof panel and said sidewall panel and abuts said center web of said cap, a connector fastened through said center web of said Z-section Aand said web of said cap and connecting said roof panel to said sidewall panel, and a cupped spring washer flush mounted between said connector and said webs providing a spring loaded flexible joint between said roof panel and said sidewall panel.

2. A connection as set forth in claim l which further includes a J-section top beam formed to the obtuse angle between said roof panel and said sidewall panel connected to said roof panel and said Z-section.

3. A connection as set :forth in claim l wherein said Z-section further comprises a downturned leg that abuts and extends along the outside of said cap, to form a pocket in conjunction with said center web of said Z -section for positioning and aligning said roof panel upon connection thereof to said sidewall panel.

4. A connection as set forth in claim 3 which further includes a top beam extending along the edge of said roof panel over said Z-section and having a downturned leg connected to said leg of said Z -section and provided with an outturned gutter.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,100,371 Bachman NOV. 3G, 1937 2,600,140 Torseth `Tinne l0, 1952 2,838,339 Schaldenbrand iune l0, 1959 3,066,621 Dean et al. Dec. 4, 1962 

1. A FLEXIBLE ROOF-TO-SIDWALL CONNECTION FOR A RAILWAY VEHICLE HAVING A VERTICAL SIDEWALL PANEL AND A SLOPED ROOF PANEL INTERSECTING AT AN OBTUSE ANGLE COMPRISING, A VERTICAL SIDEWALL PANEL HAVING A PLURALITY OF VERTICAL SIDEWALL POSTS, A THROUGHRUNNING CHANNEL SHAPED CAP CONNECTING SAID PLURALITY OF SIDEWALL POSTS AND PROVIDING A CENTER WEB MEMBER OF SAID CAP WHICH SUBSTANTIALLY BISECTS THE ANGLE OF INTERSECTION BETWEEN SAID ROOF PANEL AND SAID SIDEWALL PANEL, A SLOPED ROOF HAVING A PLURALITY OF SUPPORTING CARLINES, A THROUGHRUNNING Z-SECTION CONNECTING SAID CARLINES AND PROVIDING A CENTER WEB MEMBER OF SAID Z-SECTION WHICH SUBSTANTIALLY BISECTS THE ANGLE OF INTERSECTION BETWEEN SAID ROOF PANEL AND SAID SIDEWALL PANEL AND ABUTS SAID CENTER WEB OF SAID CAP, A CONNECTOR FASTENED THROUGH SAID CENTER WEB OF SAID Z-SECTION AND SAID WEB OF SAID CAP AND CONNECTING SAID ROOF PANEL TO SAID SIDEWALL PANEL, 